The National Union of Teachers (NUT) insists that the strike it is planning to hold on July 10 is entirely about pay and conditions. But the rhetoric it uses is largely about the perceived “extremism” of Michael Gove and his reform agenda – dismissed by the NUT as an “expensive ideological experiment”. In other words, this industrial action is, in essence, a piece of political theatre, designed to humiliate the Government and show Mr Gove who is boss.

Of course, we support the right to strike: it is a civil right that people have worked hard to achieve. But those who choose industrial action also have to take responsibility for the consequences. In this case, it means many parents being inconvenienced and many children’s education disrupted – the very antithesis of teaching. The Department for Education has issued guidelines for keeping school gates open that include conscripting Scout leaders and sports coaches to hold classes, which gives an indicator of the chaos that may well result.

It is patently wrong to cause such disruption for the purpose of point-scoring – and similarly wrong, as a Labour leader once told an appreciative Labour conference, to play politics with people’s jobs and services. The NUT should back down and let its members get on with the task Mr Gove has set them: raising the standard of schooling.